Ha! I can FINALLY write about this!

Sometimes I wonder how I ever manage to keep secrets. I just don't know. If it's someone else's secret, I'm fine, and I can keep my lips sealed til Judgment Day! If it's mine, however, I can't keep my mouth shut for very long. So, woo hoo! I've finally told the family, and now I can really spill the beans!

I'm pregnant! Gah!

Most people don't know, but Brett and I have actually been trying for about a year and a half, but my ovaries just weren't cooperating. I don't ovulate regularly (as in sometimes I skip up to six months!), so several months ago I started taking Clomid, which is a fertility agent that helps to promote ovulation. Not like, eight eggs at once or anything, just...normal ovulation. Coincidentally enough, though, the cycle I got pregnant was the first cycle I missed taking my prescription! I'd transferred my scrip to Walmart (since I work in a Catholic hospital, their insurance will not cover Clomid, and it can get VERY expensive depending on the dosage. Walmart? $10.) and there was some confusion about when it would be ready, and then they were closed before I got off work. (Really? 6 pm? Why would a Walmart ANYTHING close at 6 pm? I'm just saying.)

So at any rate, I didn't take my drugs this past month, and I didn't see any changes in my temperature to indicate that I'd ovulated. So, I got ready to start a round of progesterone, but I always take a pregnancy test just in case, since technically you're not supposed to take it while your pregnant unless your doctor tells you to. Imagine my surprise when that little line showed up!

Telling Brett was a lot of fun. I don't think he really believed me at first, but now that he's seen the tiny orange seed of a nugget on the ultrasound, he can't deny it! Ha! Nah, in all seriousness, Brett and I are both really excited (and really terrified) at the prospect of actually becoming parents. Wow. That still sounds weird.

It's strange sometimes, because at the big moments of my life, things just seem so...surreal. Like, is this really happening? Nah. Can't be. And then the logical part of me (yes, part of me really is logical) reminds me that yes, I am an adult, and I'm married, and I'm 23, and it's okay, because this really is happening. Still, it's hard to really come to grips with it. I have to admit, the thought of really being a parent is pretty scary. Hopefully our kids won't be too much like us, because if they are, we'll certainly have our hands full!

Remembering

I know Heather posted about this on her blog, and I don't want to "steal her thunder" or anything, but I always think about her and her accident around the anniversary. I don't know if I've ever really told Heather about it from my point of view, and since I'm thinking about it anyway, I figured I'd write about it.

Like Heather, my day started out completely normal. I was a senior in high school that year, and I loved all the fun things I got to do. The past few years Heather and I had gotten...maybe not closer, exactly, but the meanness and the animosity we'd had for many years had really faded, and I had started to think of her as an actually nice person! We fought all growing up, so I thought at the time that it was quite an improvement. She even helped me out (or rather, bailed me out) for my senior pictures, doing my hair and makeup. I was so grateful then because well, I wasn't very good at those things, and I'd been rather jealous of Heather's good looks for quite some time!

At any rate, I was sitting in my seventh hour class, college prep English, with several of my friends. I never got in trouble (or almost never), so imagine my surprise when I was called up to the office over the intercom. There was the expected teasing from the rest of the class. I left my books, figuring it would be a short trip, and went upstairs. I knew the secretary in the office because I'd dated her son (albeit for a short time) while I was in the color guard and he was in band. When I got upstairs, Kathy looked at me. I knew something had to be wrong because she was almost crying. She said to me very simply, "Laura, your sister's been in a serious car accident and they can't find your mom. You have to talk to the people from the hospital," and she handed me the phone.

I was completely stunned. I barely remember the phone conversation, except that the nurse wouldn't tell me anything because I was a minor (still 17) except that Heather was in critical condition. She kept asking me where my mom was. I couldn't for the life of me remember. I mean, really, you tell me something like that and then expect me to pull details out of thin air? Not going to happen. For some reason, probably because Paul worked at St. John's, I told them her practicum was at St. John's instead of Barnes. Fortunately I remembered where she was going to school, and so I was able to give them that information that eventually allowed them to reach Mom. She had also just gotten a cell phone, but I didn't have the number with me. I knew Chandra had tried to memorize it, and so I told the secretary to call Chandra, who was a freshman at the time, to the office.

I started crying as soon as she walked in the door, which probably scared the pants off her. I told her Heather had been in an accident, they couldn't find Mom, and I couldn't remember her cell phone number. Chandra gave me a number (although it turned out to be off by a number, so they still couldn't reach Mom). Not unexpectedly, I was trying very hard not to freak out, and not doing a very good job. Kathy told me that if we could wait until school was over, she would drive us to the hospital. I said that was fine, and went down to get my books. Since crying makes me all red and splotchy, everyone knew something was wrong when I walked back into the classroom. I picked up my stuff and told my teacher, Mr. Brown, that I had to go. I ignored my friends' questions and just left. I didn't think I could deal with it then, and since I didn't really know anything, there wasn't a point in talking to them.

As soon as school was out, Kathy took us to her van, turned on the hazard lights, and went around all the traffic from the school. I don't remember how long it took to get to the hospital. I remember getting to the waiting room in the ER. Adam was there. I tried to get the nurse to talk to me, but again, since I was a minor, she refused. Now, I love Paul, but imagine my irritation when he walked up to her and asked her, and she spilled everything to him, as did the police officer. He wasn't even a member of the family! Conveniently, he did have the same last name, though, so no doubt she assumed he was. At any rate, Mom finally arrived, and we had a lot of waiting to do. They took us back to another waiting room that was more private after a while. I don't remember a whole lot after that, except that the Haefners came up and sat with us.

Finally they allowed us to go back into the ICU where Heather was. She was in traction to try to fix her dislocated spine, and there were more machines in that room than I've ever seen in my hospital. I was determined to be strong for my family. I'm not sure why I always feel that way, but for some reason I do. I was fine until Mom reached out and took Heather's hand, and then it just hit me. I walked out of the room into the hallway, fell to my knees, and just sobbed for a couple of minutes. I'm really glad none of the nurses asked me if Iwas okay, I would've been super embarrassed. At any rate, after a couple minutes, I stood back up, wiped my face off, and walked back into Heather's room. I honestly think that's the only time I cried throughout the whole 2-month hospital experience.

I have to admit, I had a really bad attitude about the whole thing. Don't get me wrong, I was happy and relieved and excited that Heather survived the accident. It wasn't so bad while she was here in the hospital, or even while she and Mom were in Atlanta. I tried to keep my life as normal as I could under the circumstances, something I've always done when bad things have happened. The hardest part for me was when Heather came home.

As a teenager, Mom and I already weren't the best of friends, and it just got worse. I had quite the attitude problem, and I felt that I was being hugely inconvenienced just by having to help out with Heather and other things around the house. I felt like I was having to miss out on fun stuff because of Heather. It was terrible of me, and I still regret feeling that way. Things got bad enough that I actually ran away for a few days. I was a complete brat.

Fortunately for all parties involved, I grew up, and I matured (thankfully). My entire attitude toward the whole situation changed shortly after Brett and I were married, when Heather was admitted to the hospital with one of her kidney stones. She's mentioned that experience in her own blog. I don't remember exactly how long she was in the hospital, but it was for a couple weeks or so. I remember feeling like now that I was an adult, I really needed to be there for my family. Brett and I tried to make it to the hospital every day, or at least every other. We took food to Mom and Chandra, and picked Chandra up once or twice. It wasn't a whole lot, but it really brought home the principle of service bringing love. I grew to love my family, and to really like them, and to love serving them. I also see that as the turning point in my relationship with Mom, because we really started getting closer after that, to the point now where she's one of my best friends. I never would have thought that possible during my teenage years.

More than all of that, Heather has become an inspiration to me. I've faced some tough times in my life, but I can't imagine going through everything she's been through. Her ability to retain a positive attitude in the face of nearly overwhelming adversity reminds me that I can be positive, too. She is such an amazing person, and I admire her so much. I try to learn from her example to be a better person. There's so much more I want to say about her, but I just can't seem to get my thoughts in that respect onto the page, and I think I've gone on for long enough. (No doubt I'll be appalled at my epistle once I see it on the page!) But I wanted to share my thoughts on this, especially in light of today. I love you, Heather.

Sweet! (ish)

So, obviously, we're back from our trip. We got back in the wee hours of the morning Monday (after which I worked a 12-hour shift...yikes). It was really, really fun. Lunch with Scott and Jenee was actually really a blast. They're both fun people, and after the first few minutes, it really wasn't awkward at all (like I was afraid it would be). We ate at Olive Garden, yum, and had a lot of fun talking.

The Blues hockey game was awesome! We went with a couple people from the ward (one of whom is a Wild fan, the team we were playing, which made it interesting!). The game was really exciting, lots of action, including a good fight, which I didn't expect to see because the Blues aren't usually quite that feisty. But it was really fun. We ended up winning 3-1. Ha ha, Minnesota. :D

The drive up to Ohio wasn't bad, plus Brett and I really like road trips. We just talk and play guessing games with the iPod (which Brett always kicks my trash on because I have a really hard time remembering song titles and the like), but it's fun just to be together. We got to Ohio at 5am local time, which was not so much fun. We slept for a few hours and then left for Pittsburgh around noonish or so with Brett's parents.

Holy cow, is Pittsburgh a cool city or what? Granted, I didn't get to see a whole lot of it because we weren't there for very long, but I really liked what I saw. We did manage to go up the Duquesne (sp?) Incline, which was really fun. The downtown area actually reminded me a lot of downtown St. Louis, which helped me understand Brett's comment about St. Louis being an East-coast town. Yeah. It really kinda is.

So then we went to the Pens game. I'm really glad I got to see the Igloo, although I now totally understand why they're building a new arena. The Igloo is so old! And, for Chandra's benefit, I have to say that the bathroom was repulsive. You don't even want to know the details. Nasty. Alas, the Penguins lost the game against the New Jersey Devils, which was really a bummer, but we still had so much fun. Dad didn't actually go to the game with us, so it was just Brett and his mom and me. We really did have a blast at the game.

After the game we were on the way out to the car and this group of older women (they were totally cougars, and totally drunk) tried to stop Barbara, who was on the phone, to take their picture. She waved them off, but they managed to snatch Brett. He took a few pictures for them, and then (with me standing right there) one of them totally hit on him! She asked for his name (he only gave her his first name), then told him to look her up on facebook and call her! I stepped up (naturally) and said "Hi, I'm his wife!" with a very polite smile on my face. We started walking away and I could hear her mumble some comment, but unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately?) I didn't actually hear what she said. I probably would've gone back and gotten feisty with her.

Speaking of feisty, I thought this was hilarious. We were on the Dusquesne Incline, which is basically a sort of trolley car that goes up and down some tracks up the side of this ridiculously big "hill" in Pittsburgh. It's really old, and really cool. So the four of us were on the Incline, wearing our Go Pens stuff, and there were some Vikings fans in the car with us (the Steelers played the Vikings on Sunday). Barbara totally started stuff with the Vikings fans! I don't really remember what all was said, and it was in good fun, nobody was actually getting mad or anything, but there were some good-natured taunts being thrown around. It was awesome! My mother-in-law is one feisty woman.

So after the game we drove back to Ohio, spent the night (or rather, what was left of it), and just sort of hung out the next day. We went to leave that evening, and what do you know? Our headlights stopped working. We stopped by Autozone and got one of them functioning, so we drove home with one headlight (which for some reason always makes me think of that song). At any rate, we got home safely, and all is back to normal, or at least as close to normal as we get! It really was an amazing weekend!

I'm so excited!

So, I have a LOT to be excited about over the weekend. Let's see. Well, I got my hair cut today, which I think looks amazing on me, thank you very much. It had been SIX MONTHS since the last time I got it cut. Yeah....I'm kinda lazy as far as hair appointments go. Anyway, haircut was today, and then tomorrow my coworker is going to help me touch up my dye job. Yay! I'll be all beautiful and stuff for the weekend. Sweet!

So this weekend is hockey mania weekend, at least for us. Believe it or not, Brett and his mom have totally converted me to the way of the hockey fan. Yeah. I was a little hesitant at first, but now I'm just as crazy as the rest of them. So Friday evening we're going to the Blues/Wild game here in St. Louis with a couple from church. Right after that, we're leaving to drive up to Ohio to spend the weekend with my in-laws. (Can I just insert here with no ulterior motive that I seriously hit the jackpot when it came to in-laws? They are such awesome people!) We'll get to Ohio in the very wee hours of the morning. Then (as in, that day) we're driving over to Pittsburgh to watch the Penguins/Devils game. I'm so excited! Since this is the last season they'll be playing in the Igloo, Brett really wanted to make sure I got to go to a game there. After the Pens game we'll head back to Ohio and actually spend some time with Brett's parents not being all hockey-crazy.

Brett and I have been counting down to our hockey games for at least a week. My coworkers are probably so sick of hearing about it, but I just can't help it. I'm so psyched! Gah!

Okay, calming down now, or at least trying to. The other people in the library are going to start looking at me funny. Which reminds me to mention that our computer has, like, AIDS or something. Just kidding, it's not a virus. There's something going on, we think with the wiring, that makes the screen white-out. It's really agitating.

One last thing about this weekend. I'm at a mixture of nervous/excited about this one, I'm not really sure which one I'm feeling more. I've been in contact with Scott, my biological father, for a few years now. Basically we've just emailed and chatted online occasionally. Well, I've agreed to meet with him (finally), so he and his wife are coming up this way to have lunch with Brett and I tomorrow. I guess I'll have to write more after this weekend. I don't really know how this is going to turn out, or even what to expect, hence the nervousness. I have a very healthy fear of the unknown. But I guess we'll just have to see, and hope for the best.

It's good to feel good.

So usually things are fairly uneventful here, but unfortunately this past weekend I got sick. I hate being sick, but it seems like my poor immune system coupled with working at the hospital causes me to be sick far more often than I would like.

I started feeling kind of off on Friday evening. My temperature was a little high, but nothing to really be concerned about. I was scheduled to work Saturday, and since my temperature was still well below "fever" range, I went to work anyway. I got a few hours into my shift, feeling worse all the time. I mentioned it to the nursing house supervisor who freaked out a little (although in his defense, they were flu-like symptoms and everyone's H1N1 crazy). I ended up going home a few hours early. After getting home, my temp shot up and I started feeling really miserable, so I called work back and told them. The supervisor, Dave, called me (which is saying something, since he's in charge of the entire hospital). He filled out a 'possible flu' form and faxed it to corporate health, which meant that I had to be checked out by them before I could return to work.

Needless to say, since I was feeling awful (and at Mom's advice) we decided to go see a doctor. Ha. Great timing, seeing as by then it was after 5pm on a Saturday! Eventually we found an urgent care center that was still open, since we didn't see the necessity of paying $100 for an ER visit. They did a quick flu culture that came back negative (although the doctor at corporate informed me that since H1N1 is so weak, most of the time those cultures DON'T detect it). The Dr. decided I must have an upper respiratory infection even though I didn't have a cough, had just a touch of a sore throat, and my lungs sounds were clear....hmmm..... Whatever. I haven't really been impressed with the urgent care centers lately. At any rate, she gave me a scrip and sent me on my unhappy way.

I was really miserable Saturday and Sunday. The worst thing was the body aches. Everything hurt, especially my hip joints, which made it really painful to walk. I felt kind of bad for asking Brett to get me everything, but he was such a huge help. He really is a sweet man. I don't know what I would do without him. My fever broke sometime during the night Sunday, so Monday I felt way better. I actually never got the scrip filled, since the pharmacy I go to wouldn't have opened until Monday morning (and if I'd gone elsewhere, it would've cost over $40). I was afebrile and asymptomatic all day except for one little spell in the afternoon when I got dizzy, but other than that, it was a huge difference. Today we ran over to corporate health and got me cleared to go back to work, so I'll be headed back to business as usual tomorrow.

I'm hoping Brett will stay healthy. He has an incredible immune system and seems to NEVER get sick, so hopefully that'll still be the case! I certainly wouldn't mind taking care of him, but...men tend to be such bad patients, and he admits he would probably be a terrible patient. Still, it's no fun being sick, especially when you're miserable. I'm just glad that I'm up and running again!

Ah! How could I forget?

So, most people know that I bought the little blue Tercel (the Wondercar, or as I renamed her, Lexi) after I moved home. She served me very well, but she gave up the ghost this past Christmas Eve. It's rather embarrassing to admit, but we kept her for quite a while. I didn't really want to give her up, and I wasn't sure if we were going to fix her or not.

We finally decided to get rid of poor Lexi. We contacted the Salvation Army and decided to donate Lexi to their rehab program. So they came yesterday and towed her away. It was really kind of sad. But they'll fix it up and then someone else can experience the Wondercar! It is sad to see her go, though.

Yikes. See?

I went a whole month without writing. Eek. I've got to work on that whole thing.

Not a whole lot went on over the past month. Really. It was pretty typical, so there's nothing to really say about September. We did have a fun visit with Annette and Joseph and Kimball when they came in, though. Maybe it's part of being older, but I really enjoy spending time with my family. I always think it's such a shame that Kristin and her family live so far away. Brett's never even met them! We're thinking about trying to take a trip out that way sometime soon, so maybe we'll get to see them.

So, something really weird happened yesterday. A couple of times before, my foot has started to swell on the bottom kind of up by my toes. It's been totally random, but it goes away after a day or so, and I can still function, so I haven't worried about it. Up until yesterday.

Wednesday night I notice my left eye was a little bit puffy, but I figured it was because I was tired, since it was pretty late. Well, Thursday morning I woke up and my eyelid was swollen shut! It was huge! I looked like a total freak. Well, I tried icing it off and on for a couple hours and took some Aleve, but nothing changed. So Brett left work early to drive me to the doctor (seeing as it would have been totally unsafe for me to drive with only one eye). Well, he decided that I might have a skin infection, so he put me on antibiotics. Well, I disagree with him seeing as I don't have any other signs of infection, but it's a better explanation than "My eyelid felt like randomly swelling shut." I've been on the antibiotic for over 24 hours now, so I'm not contagious, even if I was before. It's still a tiny bit swollen, but it's way better than yesterday.

That's pretty much it. Today is Mom's birthday, and we're having dinner with the family tonight. I'm totally excited! I know Mom and I butted heads a lot while I was a teenager, but now that I'm not such a "twit" (ha, I can still laugh at myself) I really love spending time with her. She's such a fun person! And I am making her birthday cake for Sunday when we go down for General Conference. Exciting!

And this is where my writer's block starts to show.

Another of the reasons I was hesitant about starting a blog was that I didn't want it to just be a 'fad' with me. I was afraid I'd get started, be all excited about it, and then realize....what the heck do I have to write about that's actually interesting?

It appears I've reached that point already. :) Maybe it's because I've been kind of overwhelmed this week. I hope that's the reason. I just can't seem to get my thoughts to actually form coherent sentences. At least, my interesting thoughts.

Not a whole lot is going on at the moment. This week has been crazy at work, given the whole Epic (electronic charting) thing. Switching systems and getting everyone on the same page is quite the process, and I feel bad for the nurses and especially the doctors. They have to put all their own orders in, and a lot of them aren't happy about it! We had a cardiologist who came in, struggle for a few minutes, and then refused to do it. He wrote all his orders on paper, handed them to our secretary, and then left. Needless to say, our manager made a couple of calls. A few minutes later, the VP of Medical Affairs (who happens to be my stake president) came down and had a little talk with the cardiologist. And what do you know? Somehow he managed to put in his orders.

Quite honestly, it's gone a lot better than most people expected, which is definitely a good thing. There are still some kinks we're working out, but it'll be okay. Let's see...what else? Um, I have class this afternoon, fortunately without lab. This professor is boring enough I'd like to whack him upside the head with his own textbook...figuratively speaking, of course. He reminds me a little bit of Mr. Nickless from high school, but a lot less amusing and a lot more irritating. The man repeats himself a million times, spends 45 minutes "refreshing" what we went over in the last class, and has a sort of monotone voice. Plus, it can't help that we're doing the basic chemistry chapter (which is apparently necessary in biology?), seeing as I had chemistry last semester and know far more about the subject than what is being taught. It makes for a really long class, especially when he spends a whole lab (2 hours) telling everyone what the most basic lab tools are and what the metric system is. When we've all had classes with labs before. Gah! At any rate, I'm looking forward to only spending an hour and twenty minutes with him today.

Brett has a half-day at work today. I love his half days! It means I get to spend all afternoon with him, although honestly we'll probably do something boring like...clean. Yuck. This evening is the monthly meeting of Burns Recovered Support Group. Since I already have plans that mean I can't go to the temple with Mom, I'm planning on going to the meeting. They're usually rather engaging, and it shouldn't come as a surprise that I enjoy sharing my opinions. After the meeting, Brett and I have play practice at 8, which should be interesting. I don't remember if I talked a whole lot about the play last time, but one of the directors (who happens to be a nonmember) totally reminds the cast of Simon Cowell from American Idol. Not in a bad way, he's not mean. It was just kind of funny because during auditions he would interrupt and his mannerisms were kind of similar. Other than the mean part, he actually seems really nice.

Well, I've run on a while. I'll try to get my more interesting thoughts together for my next post. Hopefully I don't bore anyone too badly!

My Goings-on

So, I figured that today I'd just talk a little bit about what's going on in my life right now. I'm still working full time in the Burn Unit, which I love. Today was the day our new all-electronic charting system went live. I'm really glad I don't work Sundays! It'll be crazy enough tomorrow. I really love my job. It's incredibly fulfilling to be able to help other people. I'm looking forward to starting nursing school hopefully soon, as I would love to continue working with burn patients as a nurse.

I'm also going to school, although I'm not quite full time this semester. I'm taking biology (blah) since it's been more than five years since my last bio class. My professor's kind of old school, in that he totally locks the classroom door at 1:00. If you're late to class, you're out of luck. I'm still not sure how I feel about that, although it'll be nice not to have people walking in 20 minutes into class. A couple semesters ago, I had human growth & development at 8 am. People would seriously walk into class with maybe 15 minutes left. I never understood that. If you're going to be more than a few minutes late, why even bother to show up? Of course, it was kind of funny since the professor was Scottish and would yell at the student in his awesome accent. That made up for my annoyance a little bit.

I'll be taking another fencing class this semester, also, and I'm president of the fencing club. :D Fun, fun! I'm excited. Last semester my class focused on the foil, and this semester I'll be working on sabre. I really like those two weapons, I'm just not looking forward to epee. I hate epee. At any rate, setting up fencing club for the semester is keeping me hopping. As soon as I have some pictures of me fencing, I'll try to put them on here. I know Kristin has expressed interest in seeing me in my getup!

I've also been busy in church, or at least I was. I'm really bummed out. Today I was released from my calling as YW advisor. I really loved my calling, and I loved working with the Mia Maid and Laurel girls. I already miss it. I felt like a total wimp, since I started crying when Brother Livingston released me! I cried again in sacrament meeting, too. I know the Lord will call me where he needs me, but I love the Young Women! I don't want to be called elsewhere. Hopefully I can regain my positive attitude before the call is extended to me.

Also, my ward decided to put on a play. You can probably all see where this going! As dramatic as I am, it should be no surprise that I immediately signed up, and managed to drag Brett with me. After auditioning (yes, for real), Brett and I were given the parts of Snow White and Prince Charming. How appropriate! :D The "play" actually consists of several one-act plays. Our act is the two of us and a narrator. The acts are all completely unrelated. But it's incredibly amusing, and I get to be dramatic, and Brett gets to wear his sword, so we're all happy, really. I don't remember the dates of the performances, but as it gets closer I'll post them.

At any rate, with work, school, church, and my social life (such as it is), I feel like I'm always running around like a chicken with my head cut off!

About the name

I always have a tough time naming stuff, whether it's coming up with a title for something I'm writing, or a character, or whatever else. So it's not surprising that I struggled with a name for this blog.

I knew fairly early that I wanted a reference to a phoenix. I've always loved the idea of a phoenix being reborn from its own ashes, and the whole fire reference feels appropriate. With everything that I've been through, and that my family has been through, it's not difficult for me to see a comparison. Regardless of what may happen, we come through it and we become stronger because of it. I especially feel this way about my own childhood, with the abuse that I endured and the burns that I have.

The actual name "Kiss of the Phoenix" came about first, because phoenix references appear to be fairly popular, and therefore a lot of phoenix names were already taken, and second, because I like the imagery of just being touched by the phoenix rather than consumed by it. I think it's fairly poetic, and being as dramatic as I am, I figured it worked.

And so a blog is born.

All right, all right.

So, ever since this whole blogging craze came about, I always swore I would never have one. I have my little online journal, and I was okay with that.

Well, thanks to my sisters, I'm beginning to see that blogs aren't all that bad. Actually, they're really fun to read, which is definitely helped by the fact that my sisters are all very intelligent and it's not just inane babble. I always thought of a blog as the minute-by-minute action that would make me want to shut my computer down before going crazy. Well, looks like I was wrong.

So I've started my own little blog. I like Heather's idea of waiting to make sure I actually like doing this before I send the link to anyone, so we'll see how this goes.